Has it Come to This?
by Kotawings
Summary: 2 years after the start of Inpending Doom 2, Earth is the only unconqured planet.  The Irken armada has begun to attack Earth, and Zim has realized he's been lied to.  He has a change of heart, and decides to help Dib save the Earth. Possible ZATR.
1. Introduction

_Two tall aliens are standing in front of a large screen. The screen seems to depict many planets. All but one of them have large red X's through them. They aliens begin talking._

"_Well, we've conquered all but one of the planets in our known universe. I say we go for it."_

"_But that's the planet Zim's on!"_

"_So? Don't we want to control the universe?"_

"_Well, yeah, but…"_

"_No buts. We're going to capture the planet. We can always make it into an exile planet. That way he can just stay there!"_

"_Alright, you've convinced me."_

"_Good. Now let's get the armada ready."_

"_Should we contact Zim?"_

"_Phfft. No. We don't want him to mess things up, now do we?"_

"_True. True."_

"_Alright then! Let's do this!"_

"Bwahahaha! The Earth is doomed this time for sure! None will get in my way! Not even Dib!"

"I'm gonna sing the doom song now!"

"No GIR! I order you to remain quiet! I ORDER IT!"

"Awww."

"Good. Now, let us sneak over to Dib-monkey's house and TIE HIM UP!"

"Where are we gonna tie him up?"

"IN THE CLOSET!"

"YAY!"

_Dib's house_

"Now GIR, we must be very quiet. We must not let Dib hear us!"

GIR salutes.

But before Zim was able to climb through Dib's bedroom window, all the light that was lighting up the night was suddenly gone.

"Eh? What is this!"

Ships began pouring out of the sky. Lasers fell upon buildings and screams began to tear through the night. The Irkens were invading.

"The Tallest have arrived! I was beginning to think they would never come!"

But as Zim saw more and more destruction, his feelings began to change. He looked around uncomfortably.

"Why didn't the Tallest tell me they were coming?" he asked softly. "I was the one preparing this planet for invasion!"

Zim began to race through his memories of the past two years. The Great Assigning. The Tallest had given him a seemingly secret mission, yet they hardly ever had seemed interested in what he had to report. They had given him GIR, a slightly defective SIR unit who often did more harm than good. Finally, Tak had come to try and steal his mission. She had told them that the Tallest had lied to him, and that his mission was nothing more than an exile. He had disregarded it at first, but now, looking at all the pieces, he was beginning to think she was telling the truth.

"Was this mission really just a way to get me out of the way?"

Something told him, _yes, Zim. _

Something also told him that he had come to love Earth, and he didn't want it to be changed into some stupid, pointless planet.

Zim's eyes narrowed. He could stop the invasion, he could get back at the Tallest for lying to him. He could save the Earth.

But he would need help.

Quickly, Zim crashed through Dib's bedroom window.

"Ahh! What the…"

"Dib! Wake up! The Irken armada is here and they're going to destroy Earth!"

A hand came out of the dark and punched Zim in the face.

"Ah!"

"Have you come to gloat then?" Dib asked angrily. "Well, I'm not going to let you! I'll stop the invasion!"

Dib began to run out of the room.

"Dib wait! I came to you to help you!"

Dib stopped short.

"What?"

"The Tallest lied to me. Everybody in the empire hates me. This is the only place where I feel like I belong. I don't want them to destroy it."

Dib looked at Zim with wide eyes.

_But Zim tried to take over the Earth just yesterday!_

"Please, Dib, I want to help."

Dib nodded. "Come on then. We don't have much time."


	2. Kota

A/N: Well, I couldn't help it. I've managed to keep myself out of my fanfics up until now… But I felt like I needed a new character so I decided to base it off of me :3 Enjoy!

Kota's POV

I piloted my Voot cruiser between numerous buildings and structures. The humans that lived here were pathetic. They weren't even trying to defend themselves.

It was almost too easy.

I continued to fire upon the buildings and people running through the streets. My mind began to wander. What would the tallest do to this planet? Maybe a jail or something? Another parking structure planet?

Hmm.

Suddenly, the cruiser jerked violently to the side.

Someone was _attacking_ me!

I turned my ship toward the attacker.

It was another Voot cruiser.

I contacted the pilot.

"Soldier, stand down! I'm on your side you idiot!"

The pilot messaged back.

"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure!"

I couldn't believe that I was actually hearing this.

The pilot of the other cruiser was _Zim_!

Before I could respond, Zim fired at me again. The cruiser began to smoke and I started to lose control.

I frantically worked the controls, desperately trying to keep the fighter aloft.

But I couldn't keep control.

My ship began spiraling downward at an increasingly fast rate. I began to strap myself down, fearing for my life.

The entire world went black as I hit pavement.

My eyes flickered open weakly. I was lying on the ground, trapped between the road and the Voot cruiser.

I also began to notice that fire was beginning to engulf the ship.

I had managed to keep my panic in check before, but no longer.

"Help! Someone! I'm trapped!"

I struggled feebly toward what I assumed to be a way out, only to find a dead end.

Smoke began to fill the air, blinding me. I coughed and tried to find someplace with fresh air. It was no use, flames were all around me, slowly working their way toward me, ready to send me to my death.

"Please! Help!"

I was quickly becoming frantic.

The first of the flames licked my antenna, lighting it on fire. I quickly put it out by slapping it.

Embers began to land on and singe my uniform, and I realized that nothing could save me now.

I prepared to meet my end.

Just as I was feeling the fire burn my skin, the Voot cruiser was lifted up and away from me. I leapt up and began beating at the fire on my clothes.

After the fire was out, I began to sway on my feet. The smoke had filled me, and I didn't think I was going to be able to stay conscious for very long…

The ground rushed up at me, and I did nothing to try and stop my fall.

When I awoke, I found myself suspended in a large glass chamber.

_Captured!_

I almost let panic take control of me, but I quickly pushed it back down.

"Hello?" I asked. "Is there anyone in here?"

"There is indeed!"

I narrowed my eyes as I heard the familiar voice.

_Zim._

"What do you want with me, Zim? Don't you want the Earth destroyed? It was your mission to weaken the planet, was it not?"

"The Tallest lied to me. They just wanted me out of the way! So now I am against them!"

I began to search the surrounding area. Unfortunately, I could only see the inside of the chamber.

"But your an Irken, Zim! You're not human!"

"I seem to have grown fond of this planet, and I don't want to see it destroyed and changed into some pointless planet that is hardly ever used. Our species has gone too far. No one race should ever hold this much power. I realize that now."

His words moved me.

Truthfully, I had never really liked the fact that you had to be going to different planets daily just to get things you needed for survival. It was easy enough to put all of that stuff on one planet. What Zim was saying was actually making sense.

"I can understand your point of view, Zim. But what I don't understand is why you've captured me. What do you want from me?"

"I wanted to ask you if you were willing to help me in my fight. You helped me before. Don't you remember?"

"Well, that was a long time ago, and…"

"Enough excuses, Kota. I just want a straight answer. Will you help me? Or will you not?"

A/N: Muahaha! A cliff hanger! And I'm sure you're also wondering about back stories now too, yes? Well, you'll just have to keep reading to find out! X3


	3. Tak

Kota's POV

I sighed.

If I agreed to help Zim, I would be fighting for what I believed in, but I would be turning my back on my entire species. But if I refused, Zim would probably never let me out.

I didn't have much of a choice.

"Alright, I'll help you."

Almost immediately, I fell from the chamber and onto the floor of Zim's base.

"I knew you would help me. That's why I targeted you. I haven't forgotten the many times you've helped me before, Kota."

I rolled my eyes. "Those times weren't any big deal, Zim. Just tell me what you want me to do."

"Well, first, I'd better introduce you to the others helping us." He gestured toward the other side of the room.

Three figures came and stood beside Zim.

"This is Dib, Gaz and GIR, my SIR unit."

I raised my eyebrows. "So, we're going to defeat the ENTIRE Irken armada with the forces of two humans, two Irkens, a SIR and your base?"

Zim looked slightly embarrassed.

"Zim, I REALLY wanted to believe you had a better plan than this."

"It seemed like a good idea last night during the initial attack."

"Uh, huh."

Awkward silence.

Then I remembered that I had stashed MY SIR in my Pak.

"Well, Zim, Lucky for you, I also have a SIR from Operation Impending Doom 1."

I retrieved my sleeping SIR, Iris, and turned her on.

"Iris, reporting for duty, mistress!" Iris said with a salute.

"Well, Iris, it seems that we're going to be going against the Tallest and the armada to save this planet. What do you think about that?"

"Not such a good idea, mistress."

"My thoughts exactly, Iris."

Just then, GIR walked over and began waving chaotically at Iris.

"Hi there!" he said happily.

"A malfunctioning SIR, Zim?"

Again, Zim looked embarrassed.

"Alright, we need more help. This just isn't going to cut it."

I rubbed my hand on the side of my face in concentration and stress. Zim had never been the type to really think things through. That was often the reason I'd have to bail him out.

I had friends, allies, who I might be able to convince. Other's who had similar views. Zim actually was fighting for a good cause.

"Do you have a communicator, Zim?" I asked, half expecting to hear "no."

"Of course I do! Follow me."

Surprised, I followed Zim.

I was led through a strange looking house, and stood in front of a picture of a green, cross-eyed monkey.

Then, the picture slid back, revealing a communicator screen.

"Alright, leave. I need to be able to contact these people by myself, otherwise they might back out."

"How do we know that you're not calling for help, hmm?" the human called Dib asked accusingly.

"Kota doesn't go back on her word. I've known her for long enough to know that much," Zim said matter-of-factly.

Lucky for him, he was right. I had no intention of ratting them out.

I gave them a small smile. "Trust me, I think you're fighting for a good cause. We just need more help is all."

They all reluctantly left.

Time for my first call.

"Computer, contact Tak."

Moments later, Tak appeared on screen. We had been friends for as long as I could remember. And even though she had always had her heart set on being an invader, she had often mentioned that she didn't like that the planets were giving stupid, pointless makeovers and turned into giant wastelands.

"Kota? Is that you? I thought you died!"

"Hah, I was afraid I had for a little while there, too."

"Where are you? Do you need to be rescued?"

"Well, I've kind of fallen into a weird situation, Tak. And I was wondering if there was any way you could help me."

"I'll do everything I can!"

"Don't promise anything until I tell you what I'm asking from you."

Tak raised an eyebrow curiously.

I took a deep breath.

"Zim, both captured me and rescued me. It turns out that he's fighting against the armada to save Earth. He shot me down and brought me to his base yesterday because he knew that I'd help him. And here I am, helping him, AGAIN. I know you despise Zim, but we're friends, and I thought you might help me."

Tak looked at me for a long time. She looked at me like I was crazy, then looked thoughtful, then angry, sad, and finally, decisive.

"Alright, I'll help you. I don't agree with the destruction of every single planet in the universe. But I refuse to answer to Zim. Is there anyone else helping?"

Well," I began awkwardly. "Two humans, and two SIR units, but that's it."

"My Tallest, you WERE thrust into a bad situation. I'll do my best, but I have a feeling that this will all end badly. Mark my words."

"I know, Tak. I've had a bad feeling about this whole thing the minute I woke up this morning."


	4. Preparing for the Fight

Kota's POV

I cut the transmission.

Well, one more soldier was better than nothing.

Now, who should I call next?

I thought for a minute, thought about all the different Irkens I had ever done anything with, all the ones I knew.

"Computer, contact Dink."

A moment later, my old friend appeared on screen.

"Kota! I haven't seen you in forever! How are you?"

"Well, Dink…"

After many human hours, I had actually managed to get five more Irkens to join our cause, not including Tak and Dink.

It still wasn't even close to enough to fight the entire armada.

But, it was a start.

Just then, Zim walked into the room.

"How's it going?" he asked.

"Well, I managed to get seven other Irkens to help us out. But that's still nowhere near enough to make an army."

"Who'd you manage to convince?"

"Dink, Mir, Jek, Kiu, Huji, Kern and…" I drifted off.

"Well? Who's the last one?"

"Tak," I said quietly.

"Who?"

"Tak," I said a little louder.

Zim's eyes went wide. "Please tell me you're joking."

I shook my head.

"But she stole my robot bee!" Zim said angrily.

"O_o…"

"She also attempted to steal my mission! ZIM'S MISSION!" Zim threw his arms up for emphasis.

GIR walked into the room.

"Who we talkin' about?" he asked happily.

"Tak," I said unhappily. Zim glared at me.

"Oh, you mean the girl who ruined master's base? I LIKE HER!" GIR shrieked.

"But GIR, she is the enemy!" Zim yelled.

"She is not! She's my friend!" I yelled back.

"Uh, I hate to interrupt, but… who are we talking about?" Dib asked as he walked into the room.

"Tak!" we all yelled.

"What? I only just now got here!"

I spun around.

Tak was standing by the front door with a confused look on her face.

Awkward silence.

I cleared my throat. "How'd you get here so fast?" I asked casually.

"I was in the area," she said, still looking slightly confused.

Zim, meanwhile, was giving her an evil death glare. Tak noticed.

"Why are YOU, glaring at ME?" she asked angrily. "YOU were the one who ruined MY life!"

"Details," Zim said, waving his hand and brushing the comment off.

Oh boy.

Tak looked enraged, but she said nothing. She turned to me.

"I'm only here because you asked me to, don't forget that. If Zim continues to make me mad, I won't be staying here for very long."

I nodded. "I appreciate you coming, Tak. You're an excellent warrior."

Tak snorted and turned to Dib.

"I haven't seen you in a while, Dib." That was all she said.

"Wait, you know each other?" I asked.

Dib nodded.

Gaz walked into the room playing her Game Slave.

"You're voices are all making me sick," she said scathingly.

I turned to her.

"Are you always so mean?" I asked angrily.

I swear, as soon as I asked that question I died a little inside.

Gaz just sat there and looked at me silently, but I can honestly say that she was scaring me.

Zim walked up and whispered to me. "Do you understand why we try to avoid her?"

"Y-y-yes," I said, failing at keeping my voice steady.

Dib snickered.

"What is the point of me being here if we're not going to be doing anything to help save this pitiful planet?" Tak asked.

"Right," I said quickly, gaining back my composure. "We need to start preparing. The humans won't be able to stave off the armada for very long, and we must be ready for when they inevitably fail."

"Hey! Who says we'll fail?" Dib asked, sounding offended.

"We're more technologically advanced than you are, and we could easily win by sheer numbers."

"Humph."

"How are we going to turn this dump into a military base?" Gaz asked, putting away her Game Slave.

"This is no dump! This is Zim's fortress!" Zim yelled.

"Yeah, sure, whatever."

"Guys! We have to stop arguing!" I cried. "We have to work together or we stand no chance at all! Don't you want to save Earth?"

Silence.

Then…

"Yeah…"

"I guess…"

"I'm only here because you asked me to…"

"Taquitos!"

"Of course!"

"Well, then let's get started! We need to add more rooms and stock up on weapons. We could also use a spy."

Everybody nodded in agreement.

"Well, let's get started, we need to get everything finished by the time the others arrive so they don't lose hope."

"Kota, have you lost hope?" Dib asked.

"Honestly? No, I haven't yet. But our chances are looking awfully slim."


	5. Will They Ever Shut Up!

Kota's POV

Over the next few hours, we transformed Zim's base. There were many more rooms and weapons were lying strewn around all over the place. More than once we had to stop GIR from blowing something up.

It was also almost impossible to keep Zim and Tak from fighting.

"Zim, if we weren't fighting for the same cause right now…"

"Nothing you say scares me! I AM ZIM!"

"Will you two shut up?" I yelled. "You sound like an old married couple!"

Tak flushed red and Zim stood there blinking awkwardly.

"Now that you two have shut up, maybe we can get some other things done," I said calmly. "We need to move all of the weapons into the armory. And we need to do it before GIR destroys something."

"Agreed," Zim said.

So we began running around the base collecting various weapons and moving them below ground.

When we finished, we stood back and admired our work.

Shelves lined the entire room top to bottom. Every square inch of the shelves was filled with weapons.

"Ingenious!" Zim exclaimed.

"Well, at least we're prepared," Tak said.

"Wow, I've never seen so many weapons in one place before!" Dib said, eyes wide.

"I've seen more," Gaz said, barely glancing at the shelves before turning back to her game slave.

Slightly creeped out silence.

I cleared my throat. "Well, now that we're finished, all we have to do is wait until the others get here."

The next few days were spent mostly in fear. The armada conquered more and more of Earth each day. The good news was that Zim and Tak actually stopped fighting. I think it had something with the fact that Zim actually said he was sorry.

I know, amazing isn't it?

Well, as long as they aren't fighting.

A/N: Sorry the chapter was so short! I started to run out of ideas! The next one will be much longer, I promise.


	6. Dink, and WAFFLES!

A/N: Alright, here we go! A nice long chapter for you guys! Another thing, the song mascot for this story is _Lions!_ by _Lights._ It's a great song, so if you haven't listened to it, why not give it a shot?

Kota's POV

I was awoken from my peaceful sleep by the doorbell.

I rubbed my eyes. "Who on Irk would be awake right now?" I asked, slipping off the couch. (Zim was still working on putting more rooms in the base.)

I hobbled over to the door and had it turn invisible. After my eyes adjusted, I could see who it was.

The Irken that I saw through the door was short with a big head. He almost looked like a bobble-head.

It was my old friend, Dink.

I opened the door.

"Dink!" I said happily, giving him a hug.

"Hey, Kota!" He said, returning the hug.

Zim stumbled into the room. "Who is it, Kota? Not the Tallest I hope."

"If it was, do you honestly think I'd let them in?" I asked, rolling my eyes.

"Well, I guess not."

"Anyway… Zim, do you remember Dink? He went to the academy with us both."

Zim looked at Dink for a moment, then shook his head. "Nuh uh."

"Well, now you two know each other."

Zim grunted a greeting then went back upstairs.

I turned to Dink. "Well, come in! We don't want anyone to see you, do we?"

Dink followed me into the base and I quickly shut the door behind him.

"Wait! I left my SIR waiting in my Voot Runner! Let me just go get him real fast!"

"Alright, Dink. But Hurry! We don't want anyone to see us."

"That's exactly why I arrived at night!" He said, running back out the door.

A moment later, he returned with a slightly damaged SIR unit.

"Kota, this is Stubs, my SIR."

Stubs sparked.

"He, uh, hasn't been functioning too well lately."

Another malfunctioning SIR?

"Well, that's ok. Hopefully we can repair him. And if not, we'll still have two working SIRs.

"Wait, who else is here so far?"

"Just Zim, Tak and I. Two humans as well."

"So, who doesn't have a SIR?"

"We all have SIRs, but Zim's SIR is definitely malfunctioning, possibly beyond repair."

As if on cue, GIR shuffled into the room.

"Hiya!" GIR said to Stubs and Dink.

"Ah, this would be GIR, Zim's SIR."

"Interesting," Dink said, looking slightly amused.

GIR turned to me. "Are you gonna make breakfast?" he asked me.

"GIR, it is three in the morning."

"So?" GIR asked.

"I am NOT making anything to eat until the sun is up."

"Why on Irk would you make Earth food?" Dink asked, confused.

"I make it for the humans and for GIR, who seems to like it."

"Why can't the humans make their own food?"

"I actually enjoy making things," I said, blushing slightly.

"Ah, all right then."

I cleared my throat. "Well, I'm sure you're tired. I'll show you where you'll be staying while you're here."

I lead Dink upstairs to one of the empty rooms, where he promptly fell onto the bed, snoring.

Stubs hobbled in after him and sat on the floor.

I smiled. "Goodnight, Dink."

I wound up not getting anymore sleep that night.

First, I had to park Dink's Voot in the hanger in Zim's roof, and then I had to deal with the now awake GIR.

"Why aren't you gonna make breakfast?" GIR asked for the thirtieth time.

I felt my eye twitch.

"Because, GIR. It's time to sleep right now," I said as patiently as possible.

GIR, ignoring me, began to ask me what I was going to make for breakfast.

"You gonna make biscuits?" he asked. "Or waffles? I love the little waffles, I love them good!"

"GIR, listen to me…"

"Or toast? What 'bout toast? Or… TACOS!"

"Enough, GIR!" I cried. "It's time to sleep!"

GIR went silent for a moment.

But only for a moment.

"You make breakfast yet?"

I threw my hands in the air. "Not yet, GIR, but how about you tell me what you want to eat so I can make it?"

"Waffles!" GIR said happily.

"Fine, GIR. I'll make waffles."

I got off the couch and went into Zim's makeshift kitchen.

GIR followed me the whole time, clapping his hands excitedly.

So that's how I spent the rest of the night, making waffles.

Just as the sun was rising, Dib and Gaz came into the kitchen. I was just finishing the clean up from making the waffles.

"You already made breakfast?" Dib asked, looking at me like I was crazy.

"GIR didn't give me much of a choice," I said pointing to him.

GIR was just finishing his third stack of waffles.

"How long have you been up?" Dib asked, grabbing a plate for himself.

"Since about three this morning," I answered unhappily.

"GIR woke you up at three to ask you to make breakfast?"

"Not exactly. My friend Dink arrived early this morning, so I was up helping him get settled. GIR just wouldn't let me go back to sleep."

"ANOTHER alien?" Gaz asked.

I suppressed a shudder. "Well, yes. And there's still five more coming."

Gaz groaned and began shoving waffles into her mouth.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to try and get a little more sleep."

"Bye!" GIR said, waving.

I waved back tiredly, stumbling toward the couch.

I then proceeded to flop down and fall asleep.

"Mistress?"

I opened my eyes to see Iris looking at me, slightly worriedly.

I yawned. "Yes, Iris?"

"The new SIR is destroying things," she said, pointing.

I bolted upright and ran into the kitchen.

When I got there, a very strange sight met my eyes.

Stubs was screeching like a Banshee while throwing plates at the wall. Meanwhile, GIR was rolling on the floor laughing, Zim was waving his arms for Stubs to stop, and Tak was just standing there, rolling her eyes and shaking her head.

"Ah!" I said, running into the chaos.

"Stop, evil SIR! You are ruining Zim's base supplies!" Zim yelled.

"Stubs! Stop immediately!" I cried, running toward him.

Almost immediately, Stubs stopped throwing things. He then leapt into the air and landed right in front of me, saluting.

"Yes, mighty Irken! I obey!"

Just then, Dink ran into the room. "I am so sorry!" He ran up to Stubs and flicked the off switch. Stubs' eyes went out and he became motionless.

"Dink, we have to repair Stubs _now._ We can't have him breaking things like that."

"I know you'd never see Mimi doing that," Tak scoffed.

You could always count on Tak to be superior.

"Zim, could you help Dink repair his SIR?" I asked.

"Fine, but only because I don't want Stubs ruining more things," Zim said, already leading the way to the elevator.

Dink followed, carrying a motionless Stubs. Both he a Zim descended into the depths of Zim's base.

Dib came to a screeching halt right beside Tak.

"What happened?" he asked, panting.

"Dink's SIR was throwing plates at the wall," Tak said.

"What? Not even GIR would do that!" Dib said disbelievingly

"Oh, I don't know about that…" I said. "Besides, Dink said that Stubs has been malfunctioning lately. He and Zim just went to go repair it."

"Alright then," Dib said, leaving the room.

"Can I ask you something?" Tak asked, leaning against the wall."

"Sure," I said, taking a seat.

"How long have you known Zim?"

Why would she want to know that?

"Probably as long as I've known you, if not longer."

"Oh?" Tak asked. "That's an awfully long time."

"Yeah, and an even longer story, so don't ask."

"It Sounds like you're hiding something," Tak said, taking a seat across from me.

I shifted uncomfortably.

"Care to share your story with me?"

I considered. Zim and I were the only ones who knew our entire shared past. I couldn't trust anyone else. If I told the wrong people…

"I…"

But thankfully, I was saved by the bell, the doorbell.


	7. Mir and Lila

Kota's POV

I quickly got up and went to the door.

Throwing caution to the wind, I opened the door without checking to see who it was first.

Thankfully, the figure standing there was Irken.

I recognized her instantly from the way she held herself, regally. She was on the taller side, which is why she had been an obvious choice for an invader, with big ruby colored eyes.

It was my friend, Mir.

"Hello, Mir!" I said happily.

"Hello, Kota. It's good to see you again. May I come in?"

"Of course!" I said, stepping aside. Mir walked in, closely followed by her SIR. I shut the door behind them.

"Kota, you remember my SIR, Lila?"

"Of course!"

Lila and Iris had befriended each other in the short amount of time they had known each other. It had caused some complications, but that's another story.

"How have you been, Mir?" I asked.

"I've been lovely, Kota. Thank you for asking. Now, who else has arrived so far?"

"Just you, Tak and Dink."

"Well, how many more are coming?"

"Just four more so far."

"Tut, tut. That won't do at all! We need more soldiers! I have some connections that I can call later, if you like."

"That would be great, Mir!" I said, slightly relieved. At least I wasn't the only one recruiting now. And Mir was sure to have good connections.

"Is that Mir?" Tak asked, walking into the room.

"Tak!" Mir said happily, walking over to greet her friend.

The two began to chat, and I began to zone out. Tak was growing suspicious. She knew of all the things Zim had done throughout the years, and she wanted to know if I played any part in them. Well, she wasn't going to get anything out of me. I had promised not to tell anybody. There was too much at stake.

And then my train of thought was interrupted by Iris and GIR walking into the room.

"Do you like waffles?" GIR asked Iris.

"Waffles?" Iris asked.

"Waffles!"

"What are waffles?"

They stopped short at the sight of Lila.

"Lila!" Iris screeched, running toward the other SIR.

Lila began to run at Iris and they ran into each other.

"I thought we had fixed that problem," Mir said, shaking her head.

"Well, seeing as they're the earliest versions of SIRs, there are bound to be problems," Tak said.

"At least they function and obey commands better than GIR does," I said, watching GIR begin to hit himself in the head.

"How on Irk did that little SIR ever get so messed up in the first place?" Mir asked, looking at GIR with disdain.

"Messed up?" Zim asked loudly, walking into the room.

"Why hello, you must be Zim," Mir said, stepping up to shake Zim's hand.

Zim ignored her. "How dare you say that GIR is messed up! He is advanced! Or, so the Tallest said he was, and I am now realizing just how often they lied to me," Zim said sadly.

Mir took her unshaken hand back, looking slightly offended that Zim had ignored her. She regained her composure and asked, "So where is Dink? I was looking forward to seeing him again as well."

"Did someone call my name?" Dink asked from in the kitchen. He walked in moments later with a newly repaired Stubs in tow.

"Mir! It's good to see you again!"

"Hello, Dink! A pleasure to see you again!"

Dink joined in the conversation between Tak and Mir, and I began to watch the four SIRs interact.

GIR held out a rubber piggy to Lila, who took it and looked at it curiously. She gave it a squeeze, and when it squeaked, she dropped it and jumped back.

Hearing the commotion, Mimi walked into the room. She looked at the earlier models and made a noise that sounding like a sniff. She was just turning to walk away when GIR ran over and stood in front of her.

"Hiya Mimi!" he shrieked, tongue sticking out.

Mimi glared at GIR.

Lila then walked over and bowed gracefully to Mimi. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Lila."

Mimi turned, looking interested. "I am Mimi," she said, slightly cautious.

"A pleasure to meet you, Mimi."

"You are different from this one," Mimi said, gesturing to GIR. "Much more civilized."

GIR responded by picking up the rubber pig and squeaking it at Iris.

"Thank you for the compliment," Lila said.

"Iris is more civilized, too. But not quite as much as you, I believe."

It was interesting to watch the SIRs, they were almost like people themselves. And their different personalities seemed to reflect the personalities of their masters.

Mimi was tough and regal, much like Tak.

Lila was regal but slightly silly, mostly like Mir.

GIR was crazy and spazy, sort of like Zim.

Iris was always ready to do as she was told, but she had her quirks as well, kind of like me.

Stubs was up front about everything, but he had his moments of silliness, a lot like Dink.

So in a way, it was like the SIR an invader was given was a blank slate, ready to be programmed with different traits.

It was cool.

"Whatcha' thinking about?" Zim asked, following my gaze.

"Oh, I was just watching the SIRs, it's interesting watching them interact."

Zim shrugged. "I suppose. Listen, I heard Tak questioning you before. Thanks for not telling her anything."

I turned to him, completely serious now. "I don't know if I'll be able to keep our secret for too much longer, Zim. All the Irkens coming to help are my friends, and if they feel like they need to know, then I'll tell them."

Zim's gaze hardened. "Do what you think is necessary, but don't do anything stupid." He walked away.

I watched as he left. Me? I wasn't the one who did stupid things, that was his job. My job was to bail him out of the trouble he caused by doing stupid things. Although he was right about one thing, I would have to be careful. You could never be sure who you could trust.

A/N: What do you think of my OC's so far? I'll do my best to continue to develop them in later chapters! I'll also eventually post pictures of them on my DeviantART when I finish them. I already have one of Kota up, so go check it out! The link is on my profile.


	8. Three Pilots and a Backstory

Kota's POV

I shook my head to clear it.

No time to get lost in thought now.

I walked over to Iris. "Iris, would you mind parking Mir's Voot in the hangar?" I asked.

"Yes, Mistress, right away!" Iris gave a salute and walked out the door.

The good thing about this planet was that the humans usually didn't notice strange things.

I turned to go into the kitchen, and Tak caught my gaze for a moment. Something told me that she wasn't finished questioning me.

I swallowed and began to make my way upstairs to get Mir's room ready for her.

As I walked past the rooms, I counted to see how many there were. There was supposed to eventually be eleven, to accommodate all of us Irkens and the humans.

_One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight…_

Eight rooms. That meant that three more had been finished since last night. We always had to have at least one empty room, just in case someone showed up at night, kind of like Dink had.

Maybe tonight I wouldn't have to sleep on the couch!

The house shook slightly as the roof opened up to allow access to the hangar.

Then, the house shook even more and the silence was engulfed with a roaring noise.

"Ah!" I cried. I ran back downstairs to see what was happening.

The others had all gathered at the door to look outside.

"What's happening?" I yelled.

"Three more Voot Runners just landed!" Tak yelled back.

The noise was suddenly cut off as the three Voots were shut down.

I shoved my way to the front to see who the new arrivals were, even though I already had a pretty good idea of who they were.

The three Irkens leapt from the Runners all at once, posing in different ways when they landed.

The first Irken was posing hands on hips. He was tall and muscular with one slightly crooked antenna. He differed from just about all other Irkens because his eyes were blue.

Very few Irkens had blue eyes, and the ones that did usually became incredibly famous. The Blue eyes were caused by a genetic mutation.

This tall blue eyed Irken was none other than my friend Jek.

The second Irken posed with one hand in the air, the other on his hip, kind of like a super hero. He was on the short side and very skinny. He had purple eyes and a smirk on his face. He was the clown out of the three. His name was Kiu.

Finally, the third Irken was average Irken height with average maroon colored eyes. In fact, Huji was almost average all the way across the board. The only thing not average about Huji was his piloting skills and his intelligence.

Although I was now beginning to question just how smart he was now, considering that this was basically a suicide mission.

These three Irkens were my pilot friends.

I had met them after I decided to become a pilot instead of an invader. Kiu, Jek and Huji were almost never apart and were best friends forever. They allowed me to hang out with them since they had dubbed me as "cool."

"Hey guys!" I said, running over.

"Hey, Kota, how's it going?" Jek asked.

"I'm ok, thanks for asking."

"You mind introducing us to the others?" Huji asked.

"Sure, come on." "Hey, Lila!" I called.

Lila poked her head out of the crowd.

"Could you, Stubs and Mimi park the Voots in the hangar?"

Lila saluted and came out moments later with Stubs and Mimi following.

As the roar from the Voots started again, I lead the pilots into the base.

I shut the door behind us and started the introductions.

"Huji, Jek and Kiu, I'd like you to meet Tak, Zim, Dink and Mir." Tak, Zim, Dink and Mir, I'd like you to meet Huji, Jek and Kiu."

Greetings were exchanged for a few moments.

"And how did you meet these three?" Tak asked.

"They're pilots, like me," I said.

"So they're your pilot friends, while we're your invader friends," Dink said.

"Exactly."

"Are we the last to arrive?" Kiu asked.

"Nope, the only one we're waiting on is Kern."

"And how did you meet him?" Dink asked.

"Oh, well, I just met him on the street one day and we kept in touch."

"That is the most random way to meet someone that I've ever heard of," Kiu said.

The others all nodded in agreement.

I shrugged. "Well, at least it's one more Irken to help us."

"True, true," Dink said.

"Speaking of help," Mir began. "Would you like me to try and contact some more people now?"

"That would be great, Mir!" I said. "While you're doing that, I'll get everyone's rooms ready."

As I ran upstairs I heard Kiu begin to crack some jokes to ease the tension of meeting new people.

Unfortunately, I didn't hear Tak following me.

I walked into one of the empty rooms and began to put sheets on the bed. I heard the door click behind me.

I spun around.

Tak was standing there, arms crossed over her chest. "Now we have time to finish our conversation."

I felt sweat bead on my forehead.

"I heard Zim mention that you've helped him out loads of times. I'd like to know which times. And no, there won't be any way to weasel your way out of this."

"Why should I tell you anything? It's my past, not yours."

"You should tell me because I'm helping you, and I'm one of your best friends."

I couldn't come up with any reason not to.

I sighed.

"You sure? It's such a long story."

"Just tell me anything you think I should know, like, why on Irk Zim wants you to help him."

"Ah, then that would be because of one specific time."

"Well, get on with it then."

I sat down on the bed. "Well, it all started with the first Great Assigning…"


	9. A Stupid Idea

A/N: Ok, in this chapter, anything in _Italics_ is narrated by Kota since she is still basically talking with Tak. Tak will also come in sometimes with comments and questions. And no, this is not Kota and Zim's full past, just a major part in it.

Kota's POV

"You were an invader?"

"Yes, but only briefly. Since I'm sure you remember Zim's part in Operation Impending Doom 1."

"Of course, and my question is, did **you** play any part in that as well?"

"Well, if you'd just let me start telling my story, you'd find out faster."

"Then get on with it!"

_Flash Back_

_So there I was, standing in front of the Tallests, just like I had always dreamed. Zim was standing right next to me, looking just as excited as I was._

"Welcome, brave Irken soldiers! Welcome to our first attempt to take control of the known universe, OPERATION IMPENDING DOOM ONE!" Tallest Red exclaimed.

Irkens cheered, and I felt my sense of pride grow.

Tallest Red and Tallest Purple continued to explain how things were going to work, but I paid no mind. We had already been briefed in a separate room as to what was going to happen.

Instead, I watched all the Irkens in the crowd grow wild with excitement and anticipation.

I felt Zim nudge my arm. "Exciting, yes?"

"You know it!"

I turned back to the Tallests just as they were finishing their speech.

"And now, to assign the planets!"

More cheers.

I shivered in anticipation.

"Step forward invader Dink."

"_Dink got to get his planet first?"_

"_Uh huh, I was so excited for him!"_

"Dink, you are assigned to the planet Iru, home of the large headed people."

A picture showed up on a screen showing Dink blending in with the inhabitants of Iru, which looked much like furry, blue monkeys with giant heads. I had a feeling Dink was assigned to Iru because of how large his head was.

Dink, slightly oblivious to the fact that this was teasing him, saluted and ran off stage.

Several other Irkens went up, some happy with their assignments, others not so happy. Then, I heard a familiar name.

"Step forward, invader Mir."

Mir walked calmly up to the Tallests and saluted. But even through her composed façade, I could tell she was bursting at the seams with excitement.

"You have been assigned to the Planet Fafel, home of the murderous cat people."

Mir's picture showed her fending off what looked like giant house cats of various shape and color.

Suddenly, I was a little less excited.

Mir paled, but saluted and walked off stage, looking slightly shakey.

I reminded myself to reassure her after. That's also when I noticed that there were only five of us left, Zim and I included.

"Step forward, Invader Zim."

I gave Zim a quick grin as he walked past me.

"Zim, you have been assigned to Maug, home of the magma people."

Oh no.

Zim paled visibly as his picture came up, showing him surrounded by living heaps of magma.

That was the planet everyone hoped to avoid, no one ever went there. Nobody had honestly thought that Maug would be chosen for invasion, yet it was. And now, Zim was the unlucky Irken to be assigned to it.

Zim saluted, shaking, and ran off stage much quicker than the others.

I was so busy trying to think of ways to help Zim that I almost missed my name when I was called.

Starting, I ran up to the Tallests and saluted.

"Kota, you have been assigned to the planet Keah, home of the hippy tree huggers."

You **HAD **to be kidding me. I had been hoping for a challenge!

I said nothing as my picture came up, showing me strangling a tree hugger. I saluted and walked off stage, fuming.

What a waste of talent! I would be one of the first to complete my mission, but it would be much too easy. Stupid hippies.

I kicked a can in my way, heading toward the equipment hall as we were instructed. I was halfway there when I saw Zim, sitting on a bench head in hands.

"Zim?"

He looked up, attempted a smile and failed terribly.

I sat next to him, trying to figure out what to say. But thankfully, Zim came up with something.

"What planet did you get?"

I hated to tell him, seeing as I probably got the easiest planet and he probably got the hardest.

I cleared my throat. "Keah," I mumbled.

Zim forced a laugh out. "How did **THAT** happen? You would think Keah would have been assigned to someone with no talent or skill whatsoever. Someone who would be more likely to cause more harm than good."

More harm than good. That was it!

"Zim! I have an idea!"

"An idea for what?"

"An idea to get you out of this mess."

"Do tell."

I hesitated. No, now that I thought about it, it was a bad, bad idea. It would be too likely that Zim would be re-encoded and stripped of invader status.

"Never mind, it's much too risky," I said sadly.

"Kota, I'll do just about anything to keep myself away from Maug."

"Are you absolutely sure?" I said, looking at him seriously.

Zim nodded.

I took a deep breath. "Alright then. Here's what we're going to do…"

_Flash Back Ends_

"You were the one who came up with the idea for Zim to attack Irk?"

"Yes. I was. I don't deny it."

"But that's terrible!"

"I already told you that I thought it was a bad idea, but Zim said he'd do almost anything!"

"Yes, and I suppose Zim was enough of an idiot to follow your advice."

"Zim knew good and well what the consequences would be, but he did it anyway."

"But everything went downhill from there, didn't it Kota?" Tak asked me angrily.

"Yeah, it did," I said, almost whispering. "Zim thought they'd take him back, even though he'd done a terrible thing. Zim's good reputation was ruined because of my stupid plan, and I got away scot-free."

Tak looked at me sadly. "How have you managed to keep this to yourself all these years? It would have killed me."

"It has been, but it scared me more to think of the truth getting out. I'm a coward, too afraid for myself to worry about others."

"That's not true," Tak said standing up. "Look at where you are now. If you were truly a self-centered coward, you wouldn't be here, you'd be up with the Tallests helping them destroy Earth. Anyone who truly cared about their well-being would be as far from this place as possible."

I smirked. "I guess we're all crazy then."

"Precisely. But even though we're crazy, we're still fighting for a cause we believe in."

I managed a smile. "Promise not to tell anyone else about this?"

Tak considered. "Not yet. But if I think the others need to know, I'll tell them."

"That's fine with me."

We shook on it and headed back down stairs.

"Where have you two been?" Dink asked.

"Getting the rooms ready, like I said I was going to!" I answered, rolling my eyes.

Dib and Gaz walked in just then, Dib attempting to converse with Gaz but failing since she was absorbed in her Game Slave.

"Seriously, Gaz, how can you keep playing those stupid games when aliens are attacking Earth?" Dib asked, looking frustrated. Then he stopped, looking at the Irkens gathered in the living room.

That's right, it's time for another awkward silence!

Dib cleared his throat. "Um, hi everyone!"

Gaz looked up, grunted then continued to play her game.

"Hey!" Dink said, walking up to Dib. "Your head's almost as big as mine!"

Gaz snickered and Dib's face burned red.

"My head's **NOT** big…"

"Not as big as mine maybe, but it's still pretty big!"

"See, I told you, Dib- monkey!" Zim said, laughing.

"Aw, Zim, stop being so mean to the pitiful human," Tak said, shaking her head.

Interesting, Tak actually managed to say something to Zim without insulting him. This was a strange turn of events.

Gaz, beginning to enjoy her brother's humiliation, put away her Game Slave and looked the aliens over. "Is this everyone?" she asked.

"Everyone but Mir and Kern. Mir is in Zim's lab, contacting some people and Kern has yet to arrive." I said, wondering if Kern was even going to show up.

"And you guys are expecting to beat an entire alien armada with what," Gaz began to count on her fingers, "Nine aliens, five robots and Dib?"

"Hey, wait a second, aren't you going to help too?" Dib asked, whirling on his sister.

"Give me one good reason I should!"

"Well, it's a war, so it'll be violent," Dib told her hopefully.

Gaz's eyes flickered open for a moment, then closed again. She kicked the floor, sighed and finally said, "Fine, I'll help."

"Thanks, Gaz," Dib said happily.

Gaz grunted and left the room.

"She's right, you know," Jek said unhappily.

"Right about what?" I asked, turning to him.

"The fact that we're way outnumbered. We can put up a small resistance, but not much more than that."

"Oh, I wouldn't say that…" Mir said, walking into the room with a grin on her face.

"Did you get others to help?" I asked eagerly.

"I did indeed."

"Well, who else? How many more are coming?" Dink asked.

Mir's grin got bigger. "How many of you have ever heard of the Resisty?"

A/N: Thanks to DragonGirl156 for the idea to bring the Resisty into this! I had almost forgotten about them!


	10. It Starts

Kota's POV

I racked my brain. The Resisty _did_ sound familiar. But from where?

"I think I've heard of them, but would you mind refreshing my memory?" I asked.

"Of course," Mir replied. "The Resisty are a group of anti-Irken rebels from various planets and species. Their leader is Lard Nar, a Vortian. They aren't terribly strong, but they have access to plenty of weapons and ships. They'll be a big help to us."

"That's awesome! When will they be here?" I asked.

"Lard Nar said he wasn't sure, but it will be a few days at least."

"Well, as long as we can get more help."

Cue nodding.

The silence was then interrupted by the five SIRs careening into the room.

"You can't catch meeeeee!" GIR squealed.

"Don't count on it!" Iris cried.

I laughed. The SIRs were so cute sometimes!

Everyone jumped out of the way to avoid the robots racing around the room.

"Mimi! Just what do you think you're doing?" Tak asked angrily.

"Aw, come on, Tak. Let her have some fun!" I said, laughing.

GIR tripped and all the others ran into him, screaming.

"I caught you!" Iris squeaked.

"Nuh uh! I tripped! It doesn't count!" GIR said hopping back up.

"Does too!" Iris said.

"Does…"

GIR never finished his sentence because the base shook, knocking everyone over.

"What the hell was that?" Kiu cried.

I attempted to stand, but I was instantly pushed back down by another shock wave.

What was happening?

I managed to stand this time, legs shaking slightly from fear. The others were almost all up when a minor tremor shook the house.

I braced myself against the couch, trying not to fall. I watched as Tak stumbled and Zim caught her.

What the…

I didn't have time to finish the thought because the house shook again, much more violently then before. I light came crashing down from the ceiling.

"Everyone outside!" I cried.

We all scrambled outside as quickly as possible. I looked around, searching for the cause of the shaking.

"Oh no…" Tak whispered.

_The Massive_ was perched in the sky, firing towards Zim's base.

"How did they know?" I gasped.

"We have to get the ships out of the house!" Mir cried, running for the door.

"Mir! Come back! It's too dangerous!" Dink yelled, chasing after her.

But I for one, agreed with Mir. If we didn't even have ships, we had no hope.

I too headed for the door. I called to the SIRs. "Go and get as many weapons as possible! We can't lose everything!"

I burst into the house. "Computer! Take me to the hangar!" I yelled.

The elevator enveloped me, sending me toward the roof. As soon as I got there, I ran toward the ship Zim had constructed for me as an apology for destroying my other one.

The house shook again, knocking me down.

The roof opened. Mir was just taking off, and Dink was right behind her.

A hand reached down and helped me up. I stared into two blue eyes.

"Thanks, Jek," I said, panting.

"No problem, now, go get into your ship!" he said, running toward his own.

I reached my ship with no more problems and climbed in. As I began to start my Voot up, I looked around to see who else had come to rescue their ships.

Mir and Dink had already made it out, and I could see Jek and Huji powering theirs up. Kiu was just climbing aboard his, while Zim and Tak had just entered the Hangar.

That accounted for everyone.

Just as my ship began to rise, a tremendous explosion rocked the house. A huge hole had been blown in the roof. Tak and Zim had been knocked to the floor but were standing up already.

_Just worry about yourself right now._

I focused on piloting the ship out of the battered hangar and getting outside.

Once outside, I landed. Mir and Dink had popped the hatches of their Voots and were ushering their SIRs inside.

Good. All of the SIRs had made it out, each one loaded down with various weapons. Dib and Gaz stood there as well, looking terrified.

I popped the hatch.

"Iris, Dib! Get over here!"

Both of them ran over and quickly hopped in.

I looked up to the roof.

It was badly damaged, but I could see Jek and Huji flying out with Kiu right behind. Moments later, Zim and Tak were also out.

I rose into the air again, flipping my radio on.

"Can everybody hear me?" I asked.

One by one they all answered.

I looked down to make sure that all the SIRs and Gaz were picked up.

"Where to now?" Tak's voice crackled over the radio.

Good question.

Then, _The Massive _seemed to notice us. Their cannons moved until they were focused at our little knot of fighters.

"Scatter!" Jek yelled.

I took off in a random direction, just barely missing cannon fire.

Iris screeched in terror.

"Look out!" Dib yelled.

I swerved quickly to the right to avoid being shot down.

"Let me know if they try that again," I said, flipping some switches to give us more power.

I looked around trying to locate the others. I didn't see anyone, but I did see Zim's base. It was a smoking ruin.

"We barely made it out," I said quietly.

"MY BASE! MY BEAUTIFUL BASE!" Zim yelled over the radio.

"Just be happy we're alive!" I yelled back.

"Where should we meet up?" Mir asked.

"How about on the woods at the edge of town?" Dib asked.

"That's a good idea," I answered. "Alright, everyone, meet at the woods at the edge of town," I said into the radio.

The scanner on my Voot began beeping.

"Irken ships in-bound!" Dink yelled.

"Evasive maneuvers!" I yelled.

I began swerving around, trying to throw the fighters off my trail.

"Guys! New plan! Just keep flying past the woods! We'll group up after we've lost these guys!" I yelled into the radio. I turned to Dib. "Hold on!"

Dib looked green.

I suppressed a chuckle.

The ship jerked violently to the left.

"We're hit!" I cried. "Computer, damage report!"

"Fuel tank, damaged."

"Ah, shit."

"Are we going to run out of fuel?" Dib asked.

"Probably, and that's if the fuel line isn't hit again."

"And if it is?" he asked nervously.

"Kaboom," I said simply.

"I'm sorry I asked," Dib said, looking pale.

We soared over the woods, and the Irken fighters began to retreat back into the city.

"Why are they giving up?" Dib asked.

"They probably only wanted to chase us off," I said, thanking every deity I knew about. "Just in time too. We're almost out of fuel.

We regrouped near the far edge of the woods, since that's where my ship ran out of fuel.

"Is everyone ok?" Jek asked.

"Yeah, we're all here and accounted for," Dink said.

"Good, now, we have to figure out how to fix Kota's ship. We don't have any tools with us."

Blank stares.

Sigh.

"Then I guess we'd better get our hands on some tools then," I said.

"Well, assuming they haven't destroyed my house yet, I have loads of tools!" Dib said.

"It's worth a look," Jek said.

"Great, so, who'll go with Dib to try and get some tools?" I asked.

"I'll go," Kiu said, gesturing for Dib to hop in his ship.

"Great, keep in contact and try to avoid any trouble," Jek warned.

"No prob," Kiu said, hopping in his ship. "We'll be back in a few."

I watched them take off towards the city.

"I wonder how the Tallest knew what was going on?" Tak asked.

"Wait a second. Kota, didn't you say there was another Irken you asked for help?" Mir asked.

"Yeah, Kern."

"And how well do you know him?"

"He's kind of a friendly acquaintance."

"I bet he's the one who alerted the Tallest!" Tak said.

Hmm.

"You guys are probably right," I said sadly. "I guess I should have been more careful about who I asked for help."

"Definitely," Dink said.

So it all came back to being my fault, just like last time.

The sun began to set, changing the sky into a light pink color.

The others began to talk amongst themselves, and the SIRs started to shut down for the night.

I decided to go climb a tree.

I stood up and walked over to the nearest tree. I climbed it easily and sat on one of the topmost branches.

One by one, the stars began to shine in the sky, reminding me painfully of how far from home I was.

_How had I gotten into this mess?_

Kiu and Dib arrived, and it looked like their mission was successful. I looked away.

I leaned back against the trunk of the tree, looking up at the sky. I thought about all of the choices I had made in my life, and how each and every one of them had affected my future and where I was now.

I looked down at the others again. Surprisingly enough, Zim and Tak were talking to each other quietly, not angrily. I wondered what had happened to make them actually start liking each other.

I felt my eyes start to droop.

Before I knew it I had fallen asleep in the tree.

A/N: Alright! I have my picture of Dink up on DevianART and the link is on my profile. Go check him out! I think he turned out great.


	11. Sunrise

Kota's POV

My first thought upon waking up was "_Where the hell am I?"_

Then I remembered climbing into the tree last night. "_Oh yeah…"_

I half climbed, half fell out of the tree and dusted myself off once I reached the bottom. I was surprised I hadn't fallen out of the tree while I was asleep.

I looked around at the others. Jek was staring out toward the city and all the others seemed to be asleep. Jek looked over at me.

"Hey, there you are. I wondered when you were going to leave that tree. Care to join me?" He patted the ground next to him.

I walked over and sat next to my friend. We sat in a comfortable silence, watching the sun rise. It really was beautiful. Why did we have to destroy everything?

Jek appeared to be thinking the same thing as me. "This is why I decided to help you," he gestured to the sunrise. "There's not enough beauty left in this universe. Too much of it has been destroyed."

I nodded. "Wow, it's nice to hear a big tough guy like you saying something like that," I teased.

"Ha ha, very funny," he rolled his eyes. "You know, I wouldn't have thought you'd go on a potentially suicidal mission. I didn't think you were the type."

"Well, like I mentioned before, Zim didn't give me much of a choice. Although, I don't like all this destruction either. We don't need another parking structure planet…"

"What about a parking structure planet?" Huji walked over, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

"Oh, we were just talking about how our species has pretty much destroyed all the beauty in the universe and replaced it with pointless, single purpose planets," I said sadly.

"Oh," Huji sat down next to me. "You know, I wanted to help because I've never really liked the way our government was run. I mean, isn't it kind of stupid that our leaders are just the tallest out of us all? Shouldn't we choose Irkens who can actually lead?"

I nodded. "Tallests Red and Purple don't seem to be running on all four cylinders, if you catch my drift."

Jek snorted, restraining laughter.

"What's so funny?" Mir asked, strolling over.

"Nothing," I said, waving away the subject.

Mir just shrugged. She sat down next to me and turned to watch the sun slowly crawl onto the horizon. "I find it fascinating that the Earth sky changes color when the sun is at different points in the sky."

"It is interesting," Huji said thoughtfully.

"Don't look at their sun! It's booby-trapped!" Zim was running toward us, arms waving erratically.

I started. "What? How could the humans booby-trap their sun?"

"I don't know how, but if you look at it for too long, you'll go blind!"

"And how would you know this?" Mir asked.

"It happened to me once," Zim said, looking slightly embarrassed.

I forced myself not to laugh. Ah, I could imagine that scene in my head… "Of course that would happen to you, Zim."

Zim stuck his tongue out.

"Why so childish this morning?" Dink asked, joining our conversation.

"Zim doesn't appreciate Kota laughing at his past pain," Jek said, smiling.

"Is that all? Zim, shouldn't you know by now that Kota does that to everyone?"

"Hey!" I said, glaring at Dink.

"It's true, though."

"Heh heh," Zim laughed.

"Ugh, your voices are even worse out here then they are indoors," Gaz grumbled, stalking over. "Did any of you bring anything to eat? I'm starving."

We exchanged nervous glances amongst ourselves, feeling guilty that we had forgotten that humans ate much more regularly than we did.

"Uh…" I began awkwardly.

"Oh, I picked up some food while we were grabbing the tools last night," Dib said, handing Gaz a box of cereal.

Thank goodness that Dib was thinking ahead.

Gaz snatched the cereal from Dib and walked away from the rest of us, grumbling something about the outdoors being stupid.

"Someone's looking a little grumpy this morning," Kiu remarked, walking over.

"Isn't she always grumpy?" Tak asked, coming to stand between Zim and me.

"That she is," Dib said.

Gaz seemed to realize that we were staring at her. She turned to glare at us. "What? You guys have a problem or something?" she asked.

"Uh uh." "Nope." "No…"

Satisfied, Gaz went back to eating her dry cereal.

"So, what's the plan for today?" Jek asked me.

"Why are you asking me?" I asked.

"Well, you've pretty much established yourself as the leader of this little rebellion. Always ordering us around and everything…"

The others all nodded.

I blushed. "Well, I guess we need to set up a new base or something, and we need to get my ship fixed…" I trailed off, still embarrassed.

"Sounds good to me," Huji said.

More nodding.

"Well, I'll start repairing the ship then," Kiu said. He walked off with a slight swagger. (Yes, reader, I did just say swagger!)

"So what are we going to do about getting a new base?" Dink asked. "Does anyone here have any insta-house drills?"

Silence.

"I'll take that as a no…" Dink said.

"We could stay at my house," Dib suggested.

"I don't know… It might be too risky to try and stay in town, especially now that they know about us." I said.

"What other choice do we have?" Mir asked. "We can't just stay out here in the open."

Hmm.

"We might as well give Dib's house a shot," Jek said. "Mir is right, we don't really have another choice."

"Alright, we'll leave tonight so we won't be as noticeable."

!#$%^&*()_+~

A/N: Getting excited yet? The fight is only a few chapters away… Heh heh, I already wrote the finale! I'm also going to try and make the last chapters longer. Oh, and some ZATR will be included soon…


	12. Doubts

Kota's POV 

As soon as the sun set we started our engines.

We had decided to go one at a time to make our group seem less suspicious. First, I would go with Dib, leading the way. Several minutes after I left, Zim would follow, and after Zim, Tak. The others would follow in a similar manner.

"Ready to go?" I asked Dib as I started my Voot.

"Yep!"

"Then let's get going, shall we?"

The Voot began to hover and soon we were in the sky flying toward Dib's house. When we landed, I realized we had a problem.

"Uh… where are we going to hide our ships?" I asked Dib.

Dib blinked. "Well, we might be able to fit one more in my garage…"

"Wait, one more? There's already a ship in there?"

Dib nodded. "The first time Tak came to Earth, Zim destroyed her ship and she had to escape in an escape pod. Her ship crashed in my backyard and I repaired it. I keep it in our garage."

"You do realize that Tak is probably going to want her ship back."

Dib's face fell.

"Well, let's see if we can fit at least one more ship in there," I said, hovering my ship just above the ground.

Dib ran and opened the garage door and I carefully maneuvered the cruiser inside. There was just enough room.

I hopped out.

Dib closed the garage door, hiding the two ships from view. Now we just had to figure out how to hide the rest of the ships.

Just then, Zim landed in the yard. He popped the hatch of his ship so he could talk to us. "Where are we going to hide the ships?" he asked.

"Uh…"

Zim rolled his eyes. "Well, give the almighty Zim a moment to consider this dilemma."

A few moments later, Zim asked Dib a question. "Dib-human, does your father have any sort of cloaking devices?"

"I think so… but I don't know if there's anything big enough to hide all the ships."

"Well, find as many as you can and bring them out here," Zim ordered. For a moment, I thought that Dib would object, but instead, he just sighed and ran into his house.

Before Dib could get back, Tak landed her ship next to Zim's.

"What's the hold up?" she asked.

"We're trying to figure out how to hide the ships. Dib's inside right now getting some cloaking devices or something." I said.

"Where's your ship then?" Tak asked.

"We managed to fit it in his garage. And while we're on the subject, did you know that Dib has your old ship?"

"He what?"

But before I could explain further, Dib came rushing out. He was obviously holding something, but I couldn't see what it was.

"Here!" he said, handing the thing to me.

The thing turned out to be invisible, which was why I hadn't been able to tell what it was.

"What is it?" Zim asked.

"It's kind of like an Invisibility Cloak, you know, like in _Harry Potter?_"

We stared at him blankly.

"Well, I guess you wouldn't know since you're from another planet… Anyway, what it does is turn everything it covers up invisible. You can't even tell it's there."

"Very good!" Zim said happily. "But how many ships will it cover up?"

"That's the best part! This thing stretches like crazy! I think it should be able to cover up all the ships."

To demonstrate, Dib threw the invisible blanket over the two ships. Within moments they were invisible.

"Wow!" I said.

Dink landed his ship. "I saw the ships just disappear!" he said as he hopped out. "What'd you do to turn them invisible?"

As a response, Dib dragged the edge of the blanket over Dink's ship.

"Hey! Where'd everyone go?"

"Oops!" Dib pulled the blanket back to reveal Stubs attempting to climb out of the Voot.

"Hahaha!" we all laughed.

Stubs half climbed half fell out of the ship. It was obvious that he was embarrassed.

Iris ran over and hugged him. "It's ok!" she said, patting his shoulder. GIR ran over and joined the hug while Mimi just stood back and watched.

It was pretty cute.

I continued to watch them for a while, but then my mind began to wander. I began to worry about the upcoming battle… maybe this wasn't such a good idea…

"Irk to Kota!" Dink said, waving his hand in front of me. I jumped.

"You alright?" he asked.

I shook my head to clear it. "Yeah, I'm fine. I guess I just zoned out there for a second. What'd I miss?"

"Not much, we just finished hiding the ships and we're all heading inside now."

"Alright then, let's go," I said, heading toward the house.

"You sure you're alright?" Dink asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Ok…" Dink looked like he didn't believe me but he dropped the subject.

As I walked inside, I told myself over and over again that I was fine. After all if I began to have doubts, I may wind up backing out. I couldn't back out now, not with all the other people I had dragged into this counting on me. I had to be confident.

Shouting jolted me back into the present again. The SIRs had resumed their game from the previous day, chasing each other around Dib's living room, oblivious to the fact that we were in a very dangerous situation.

For a moment, I almost wished I was one of the clueless SIRs.

I watched their antics for a moment more before glancing around the rest of the room. The others had all seated themselves on various pieces of furniture, regardless of whether or not they were meant to be sat on.

Kiu had already drifted off to sleep, exhausted from working on my ship all day. Zim and Tak were chatting quietly.

_What is going on with them?_

They had been acting awfully nice to each other lately. I had thought they were mortal enemies. What had suddenly changed?

I was about to look away (it's not nice to stare you know) when Zim put his hand on Tak's.

GASP.

Well, I didn't really gasp, that would've been rude. I wanted to though.

I continued to watch. Zim and Tak were completely unaware that I was staring. I would've thought that Tak would slap Zim or something, but she didn't. She didn't even pull her hand away. In fact, she was smiling.

This whole situation we were in was getting weirder by the second.

!#$%^&*()_+~

A/N: Alright! I finally got some ZATR in here. ^^ I hope you're all enjoying the story so far… The end is coming pretty soon! Oh! I almost forgot… The links to see my pictures of Mir and Jek are on my profile, along with a picture to represent my story! Lemme know what you guys think. ;)


	13. Counting Down

A/N: OMG I'm so pumped about this story right now! One of my BFFs drew a pic for the finale and it is simply AMAZING! But don't go looking for it just yet if you know what's good for you… IT CONTAINS SPOILERS! I'll post the link to it after the finale. Now, ON TO THE STORY!

Kota's POV

I woke up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat.

Nightmares had plagued my sleep and had deprived me of energy. I attempted to slow my breathing. I looked around the quiet living room. Dib and Gaz had gone up to sleep in their own rooms, happy to be home again. The rest of us had crashed on various pieces of furniture and the floor. I sat up in the chair I had fallen asleep in.

My eyes scanned the house for any danger. Seeing nothing but sleeping Irkens, I closed my eyes and tried to sleep again. I slowly drifted back into my nightmares.

_I opened my eyes to reveal a battle. Before I realized what was happening, an Irken leapt at me, dagger in hand. I dodged away just in the nick of time. The Irken turned around with a snarl, glaring at me. I readied myself._

_Again, the Irken leapt at me. This time, I stuck my foot out and tripped him. He went sprawling across the ground kicking up dirt. I launched myself at his hand, attempting to snatch the dagger away. _

_Just as I reached for the weapon, his hand came up and sliced my side open._

_I fell to the ground, clutching my side._

_The Irken stood above me, grinning evilly. "You and your little rebellious group will never win, no matter how many people you manage to recruit. The true Irkens will always win."_

I bolted upright, breathing heavy. The faintest traces of light were just showing through the windows. I collapsed in the chair, panting. No way was I going to sleep anymore tonight. As my breathing slowed, I looked around the room once more.

The SIRs were all sprawled on the floor in their sleep modes. Kiu and Dink were on the floor as well. Mir and Jek were on the two remaining chairs in the room while Huji was asleep on the coffee table. (How is that more comfortable than the floor?) Finally, Zim and Tak were curled up on the couch together.

My fear from the dream was chased away as I looked at them. I honestly wondered what had changed so suddenly between them. Could a simple apology really change feelings that drastically? Or maybe they had secretly liked each other the whole time, and Zim's apology allowed them to put their feud behind them.

Either way, they were actually pretty cute together.

I looked away, feeling guilty about staring. My mind went back to the nightmares. I had had the same basic nightmare all night. The battle to come, me fighting something different in every dream. I always thought I was going to win, but I wound up sustaining some fatal injury. And then the same message every time.

_You and your little rebellious group will never win, no matter how many people you manage to recruit. The true Irkens will always win._

I narrowed my eyes. We could still win this. We hadn't given up. Just because our numbers were small now didn't mean they'd be small forever. And even if we did lose, others would take our place and keep the fight alive. As long as the Tallest ruled with an iron fist, there would always be beings who would disagree and stand up to them. And eventually, they would win.

Maybe we just had to be the ones to set things in motion.

~!#$%^&*()_+

Nothing eventful happened all day. We discussed various plans of action, stopped the SIRs from destroying things… the usual. I also noticed that Tak and Zim were spending more and more time together.

Very interesting…

Now, here we all were playing Boggle. Yes, that's right. Boggle.Don't ask me why, but we were tired of all the stress and the only game Dib could find was Boggle. Let the game rage begin!

"Zim has found 26 of your pitiful human words!" Zim said triumphantly.

"Really? Prove it! Point out every. Single. One." Dib sneered.

Those of us sitting out this time around leaned in, curious to see if Zim had actually found 26 different words.

One by one, Zim pointed out all the words.

Gaz snickered at Dib's disbelieving face. Zim grinned evilly and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Oh snap…" I said.

That got me weird looks.

"What?" I asked.

But I was quickly forgotten as Dib leapt across the table and tackled Zim, yelling the entire time about cheating.

"Guys, guys!" I said, running over. "Calm down! It's just a game!"

"A boring game, at that…" Mir said.

Tak ran over and helped me pull the two boys apart. "Really, boys!" Tak said, holding Zim back. "We can't be fighting each other! We have more important things to worry about!"

"Tak's right! And the things we need to worry about are outside the house right now!" Dink cried.

I let go of Dib and ran over to the window.

Sure enough, the Tallest and about a dozen guards were walking up the sidewalk toward the house.

"Be ready, guys!" I shouted. "We don't know what they want, but be ready for anything!"

Moments later, the doorbell rang.

Dib calmly walked over and opened it. "Yes?" he asked, managing to keep his voice steady.

"We would like to peacefully talk," Almighty Tallest Red said. "May we come in?"

Dib hesitantly stood aside so our leaders could come in.

I resisted the urge to salute as I saw my leaders. I had to remind myself that they were the enemy. Several of the others were obviously struggling as well.

The Tallests looked at each of us individually. I stiffened as their eyes passed over me.

"It's a shame that so many have you have gone astray because of one defect," Red said sadly. "I knew we should have gotten rid of Zim a long time ago."

Zim narrowed his eyes. "And I never should have obeyed you. I should never have believed the lies you told."

"We did what was best for our entire species, Zim. Keeping you around would have sealed our doom."

I hissed.

_Time for the truth to be known._

"That's a lie," I said, stepping forward.

"Oh?" Purple asked. "Do you not remember Impending Doom One?"

"I remember it perfectly well."

"And you still disagree?" Red asked.

"I do."

"May I ask why?"

I took a deep breath. "I disagree, because Zim knew perfectly well that what he was doing was wrong. He did it to save himself."

The Tallest looked confused, Zim's eyes widened as he realized what I was doing.

"He destroyed as much as he did because he knew he had been sent on a suicide mission, and he knew the consequences of his actions. He played stupid so that you might have had mercy on him."

"So you're telling me that he meant to sabotage the operation?" Red asked.

"That is exactly what I'm saying. I'll also say this, I'm the one who came up with the idea. It's not right to send invaders to such dangerous planets."

The Tallest looked at me like I was crazy. The others looked at me like I was an inspiration.

"And I'll tell you one thing," I began, stepping closer. "If you came here asking us to surrender, you'll get no such satisfaction out of us. We will not give up, we will not give in and we will not back down."

The Tallest looked shocked.

"Now, get out." Tak said, pointing toward the door.

Red narrowed his eyes. "You won't win this, it's only a matter of time until you're all captured." With that, they spun around and stalked out the door, slamming it behind them.

"Well, that went well." I turned to see Gaz looking at the door. She shrugged and went back to her Game Slave.

"You know, I think it's time we took action," Jek said. "With or without the Resisty. We need to show them that we aren't afraid."

"I agree," I said, watching the others. Several of them nodded in agreement.

"When do we attack?" Dink asked.

"Two days," Mir said.

We looked at her curiously.

"The Resisty said it would only take them a few days to get here. If they're not here in two days, then we can attack without them."

"Sounds good to me," Kiu said. Everyone else murmured in agreement.

"It's settled then," I said. "In two days time, we attack and show the Tallest that we mean business."

~!#$%^&*()_+

A/N: And the countdown begins! I'll try and get the pictures of Huji and Kiu up before the fight begins… I might try and draw a picture of the SIRs all together as well, but I won't guarantee anything.


	14. Battle Plans

A/N: Ok! The link to Kiu's pic is on my profile! The picture quality is terrible… but it's the best I could do since I don't have a scanner. I should have Huji up before the next chapter, and possibly a picture of the SIRs. Now, enough of my chatter…

~!#$%^&*()_+

Kota's POV

I didn't sleep any better tonight then I did last night.

In fact, the nightmares had gotten worse, probably because I knew the battle was coming soon. I was secretly terrified, but I wouldn't let anyone know that.

After the fourth time I woke up, I gave up trying to sleep. I got off of my chair and began to pace.

"Mistress?"

I looked over to see Iris watching me curiously.

"Yes, Iris?"

"Why aren't you sleeping? Is something wrong?"

I sighed. _There are all kinds of things wrong._

"Just some bad dreams, Iris."

"About what?"

Now GIR had awakened as well, rubbing his robotic eyes.

"That's not important," I said briskly.

"Yes it is. If you tell us what's wrong, we can help!"

I glanced around the room. I didn't want to wake up any of the others. By now, all of the SIRs were staring at me, waiting for my response.

"If you really want to know, then come outside with me so we don't wake anyone," I said quietly.

The SIRs saluted and headed out the door.

I followed, quietly shutting the door behind me.

~!#$%^&*()_+

I told the SIRs about my dreams, and how I was beginning to worry that they were prophecies. The last thing I wanted was for my nightmares to come true.

The SIRs listened to me quietly, even GIR. Once I was finished, they talked amongst themselves quietly. Finally, Iris turned to me.

"Mistress, we don't think that you should be worrying about your dreams. You're just scared is all. But if you want to be able to fight, you need to sleep. Try to think of happy things before you fall asleep, that might help."

I looked over the SIRs, all watching me with their (mostly) innocent eyes.

I sighed. "Alright, I'll try and get some more sleep."

"Good!" Iris ran up and hugged me. One by one all the other SIRs joined in, Mimi included.

How touching.

!~#$%^&*()_+

After I got the SIRs all settled down, I tried once again to sleep.

Following the wise words of Iris, I thought only about happy things. Sunshine, cute little animals playing, food…

Before I knew it, I had actually managed to fall asleep. And this time, no nightmares disturbed me.

!~#$%^&*()_+

A sunbeam shot through the blackness, awakening me from sleep. I sat up and rubbed sleep from my eyes. I stretched as I watched the others wake up one by one. Zim and Tak had slept next to each other again last night, and by now I was almost positive that there was something going on.

But hey, it was none of my business.

Dib and Gaz came downstairs slowly, still half asleep.

"So, what's the plan for today?" Kiu said with a yawn.

"Plan, plans and planning," I said.

"Sounds like a plan," Kiu joked.

"Hahaha…" Dink said, blinking slowly.

"That was lame," Dib said, joining the conversation.

"No, really?" I asked.

"I had no idea…" GIR said.

"Hey, I'm not as funny just as I wake up, k?" Kiu said, defending his lame humor.

"Well, let's get a move on, shall we?" Mir asked. "After all, we only have two days until the attack."

This brought me back to reality. "Right. We need to come up with a plan of action."

"Yes, we do. First, we need to decide on how to start off." Zim said, standing. "Shall we make this a sneak attack, or shall we be up front about it?"

"I think we should make it a sneak attack." I said thoughtfully. "That could give us an advantage."

"So, we start off in our Voots?" Tak asked.

"Precisely. And after we have their attention, we bring the battle to the ground. They have more power when they're in the air, but we hold the advantage on foot." I said, beginning to get excited.

"Yes, and once we're on the ground, we can lead them into alleys and things like that. We can trap them!" Dink said.

All of us were beginning to get the thrill you get before a battle. Of course, we wouldn't be nearly as excited on the way there.

!~#$%^&*()_+

The rest of the day was spent drawing up plans of action and devising different tactics. We decided that only the most skilled pilots would start the attack. That meant that Jek, Kiu, Huji and I would be the first to see action.

Oh boy, I was getting nervous.

This battle wasn't something to be taken lightly. This could easily become a life and death situation. I only hoped that we'd all live to fight another day.

As we began to fall asleep that night, I could tell I wasn't the only nervous one. Gaz had been playing her Game Slave less and less and had been spending more time sitting quietly. Although if you asked her if there was anything wrong she'd growl at you.

Zim had pulled Tak into a hug and they sat on the couch like that together. It was sweet. I began to wonder what that felt like. To know that someone cared that much about you. Irkens weren't supposed to love, it was forbidden. Forbidden, but not unheard of. There were plenty of rule breakers out there. I had felt that way about someone once myself, I missed feeling wanted…

I settled back into my leather chair, ready to try and sleep. As I drifted off, my mind raced through the events of the previous weeks. I had come here ready to kill and destroy anything and everything that got in my way. But that was quickly stopped after Zim got in a cheap shot and shot me down.

After being rescued, everything began to blur together. Being asked for help, asking others for help, finally revealing the ugly truth about my past, narrowly escaping death, playing game rage Boggle…

I felt myself smile.

Who would have thought that two people could get into a fist fight over a game of Boggle?

And with the smile still on my lips, I fell asleep.

!~#$%^&*()_+

A/N: Awww, Zim and Tak hugged. ^^ Alright, I'm not a very good romance writer, considering my only relationship thus far only got up to the hugging stage. That's right, I have never kissed, and proud of it! Alright… not really… But hey, I haven't really ever had my heart broken either.


	15. HECK YEAH

A/N: Thanks to everyone for being so supportive of my story! I can't believe this is almost finished… The link to see Huji is now on my profile… so go check him out! Also, to Invader Jrek… If you want your OC to make a Cameo, comment on whether or not you want him to be a good guy or a bad guy! Thx…

Some of the characters are a little OOC in this chapter… but I felt it was needed to make the story better! :3

MONKEYZANDMOAR!QEOIRHASDOFIH…

3rd Person POV

Nobody slept well the night before the battle. In fact, most of them stayed up all night tossing and turning.

Finally, as the sun began to climb into the sky, our dear little rebels awoke from a tortured sleep.

Zim and Tak were the first awake. Zim motioned to Tak to follow him outside.

Once outside, Zim began to quietly speak.

"Tak, I know that things between us have been strange as of late. But before we go into this battle, I just want you to know that Zim really cares about you."

Tak blushed furiously. But she answered…

"I really care about you as well, Zim," she said with a slight smile.

And then… (The moment most of you have all been waiting for…)

Zim pulled Tak gently toward him and kissed her lightly.

While Zim and Tak were outside, Jek, Kota, Huji and Kiu were busy in the backyard preparing their ships for battle. A bead of sweat rolled down Jek's face as the heat of the sun began to shine down on the Earth.

"Nervous?" Kota asked, coming up behind Jek.

Jek jumped, instantly indicating that he was indeed, nervous.

Kota giggled. "I guess that answers that."

"Don't come up behind me like that!" Jek said, beginning to calm down.

"Sorry," Kota said, not looking sorry at all.

"Man, it's getting hot out here already!" Kiu said, jumping down from the back of his Voot Cruiser.

"You know it," Kota said.

"We mustn't forget about our objective," Huji said, walking over. "Even though it's hot, we must finish checking our ships over if we are to stand any chance at all."

"As much as I hate to admit it, Huji's right," Kiu said, glancing at the sky. "Let's get back to work."

Dib was in his room gathering a bunch of hi-tech equipment together, stressing out about what he would and wouldn't need for a battle.

"Let's see… Armor is probably something I'll want, along with my taser…" (Yes, readers, Dib has a taser.)

"You're talking to yourself again," Gaz said, stalking into Dib's room.

"Am I?" Dib asked. "Oh well."

Gaz rolled her eyes and sat down on Dib's bed, playing her GS2.

"Aren't you going to get ready?" Dib asked.

"Phfft, no," Gaz said, not even looking up. "I'll be fine, Dib. It's just a bunch of stupid aliens."

"But…"

"Hush, I'm in the zone," Gaz said, staring intently at the GS2 screen.

Dink and Mir were quietly arguing about what to do with the SIRs.

"They can help us in battle!" Mir insisted.

"Yeah, but they'd be destroyed in the process!"

"So? SIRs aren't meant to last forever! And our SIRs have had pretty full lives."

Dink glanced over at the SIRs. They were all showing off to one another. Practicing battle moves, pulling out weapons, stuff like that.

"I know how you feel," Mir said a little more quietly. "I too care about my little Lila, but SIRs were made to assist Irkens. There's a reason why they have weapons built in, Dink. They were meant to fight."

Dink sighed. "Alright. I just hope they can make it through the battle."

"Watch what I can do!" GIR said excitedly. He pulled out a large array of weapons from his head and got into a fighting stance for emphasis.

The other SIRs clapped, well, except for Mimi.

"That's nothing!" Mimi scoffed. "Watch this!" All sorts of weapons sprouted from just about every part of Mimi's tiny body, making her look two times as big as she really was.

"Ooooooh!" The SIRs gasped.

Mimi bowed.

"Are we all here?" Kota asked.

One by one everyone answered.

"Good. Now, we all know the plan, we know what we're supposed to do. We don't want this battle to last for too long if we can help it. Just go in, do as much damage as possible, and get out. Are we ready?"

"YEAH!"

"Really ready?"

"HELL YEAH!"

"THEN LET'S DO THIS THING!"

The Irken pilots ran out back to their ships, starting them up. The rest of the rebels ran out the front door and toward the rendezvous site.

"Ready pilots?" Jek asked, speaking into his headset.

"Ready!" Huji said excitedly.

"I was born ready!" Kiu yelled. "Ready and full of goo, BATTLE GOO!"

"Ready as I'll ever be!" Kota said nervously.

"Alright then, prepare for take off!"

The Voot Cruisers hummed with energy as the engines revved to life.

Only moments later the ships were soaring into the sky headed toward the impending battle.

A/N: All right! Prepare for awesomeness! Don't fret about the battle not starting yet… I'm so pumped right now I feel like I could stay up all night and finish this story! I won't, but I will right AT LEAST one more chapter! ;)

This is the last you'll hear from me until after the finale! So have fun and enjoy!


	16. Let It Begin!

Kota's POV

There is no feeling quite like the feeling you get while headed into battle.

We soared through the sky toward the unsuspecting armada. Every cell in my body was screaming at me to stop, to go back while I still could.

But I couldn't do that. I couldn't abandon everyone now. No way, no how. So instead of retreating, I focused on the sky ahead of me and sped up.

The others followed my lead. Good God, I was speeding them on their way to their deaths.

I just hoped that we would all survive this battle.

"There, Irken ships ahead." Jek's voice crackled through my headset.

I concentrated on the dots in the sky, steadily growing bigger and bigger until I could tell that they were ships.

"Prepare to attack," Jek said, keeping his voice steady.

I began to charge the lasers in my Voot. I took a deep breath, trying to calm the turmoil inside of me.

"Fire in three…"

Lasers charged.

"Two…"

Target locked.

"One."

I fired at the nearest Irken ship. It immediately began to smoke. Before much longer it began to spiral down toward the ground, taking the pilot with it.

I had just barely registered my victory when the armada began to return our fire. I clutched the controls and began to swerve this way and that, doing my best to confuse the gunners.

"Lasers charged," my onboard computer said in monotone.

I locked onto another cruiser that was headed my way.

I fired.

Direct hit.

The ship spun out of control and crashed into another cruiser, taking them both down.

"Woo hoo!" I yelled into my headset. "Two Voots with one laser!"

"Watch yourself!" Kiu said urgently.

I dodged out of the way just in time to avoid being hit.

"Thanks, Kiu!"

"You think we should land now? We have their attention, and we're way outnumbered up here," Jek said.

"Yeah, head for the ground guys!"

I drove my joy stick down as far as it could go, sending my cruiser into a nose dive.

~!#$%^&*()_+

"Here they come! Get ready!" Dib yelled.

The others shifted around, adjusting armor and switching weapons between hands. Zim, not caring about being seen showing affection anymore, gave Tak a quick kiss on the cheek.

Gaz continued to play her GS2, barely registering what Dib had said.

!#$%^&*()_+

(CUE EPIC MUSIC! IF YOU AREN'T LISTENING TO ANYTHING AT THE MOMENT, ZIM ORDERS YOU TO, NOW!)

My landing was a bit violent, but what's a girl to do when she's being chased by Irkens who want to kill her?

I leapt out of the cockpit before the cruiser had even stopped moving. The other three did the same. I opened up my robotic legs from my PAK and began to high tail it toward the rendezvous point. I had barely gotten anywhere when lasers began to fire around me. Next to my feet, by my head… everywhere.

I moved the robotic legs as quickly as I could, terrified at the thought of being surrounded before we could re-group with the others. But it just wasn't enough.

Within moments, Jek, Kiu, Huji and I were surrounded by Irken elites. They pointed their weapons at us, ready to take us out when signaled.

"Thought you could escape from us?" the leader said. "Silly little rebels. Get ready men…"

I tensed.

"Aim…"

Before he could say, 'fire,' he was shot down from above. Everyone looked up in surprise.

There, in the sky, were at least a dozen Vortian ships.

!#$%%^&*()_+

"Get ready to fire again! We can't let them recover from their surprise!"

Lard Nar gave the signal to fire on the Irkens once more.

It was a good thing the Resisty had gotten there when they had, otherwise, the little group of Irken rebels would have been in even more trouble than they already were.

"Again!" Lard Nar commanded.

"Sir! Shouldn't we send some of our soldiers down to help on the ground?"

Lard Nar turned to the short little Irken who had spoken. "Indeed. Take your best troops and head down there right away!"

"Yes sir!" the Irken said, saluting.

"Oh, and Skoodge, make sure you're always watching your back."

Skoodge saluted once more and left.

~!#$%^&*()_+

We took advantage of the soldiers' surprise and got the hell out of there. Good thing too, otherwise we may have been fried by the lasers that rained down right after we left.

"Almost there!" Kiu said, panting.

The others were running toward us, weapons ready.

"You guys okay?" Dink asked as our groups joined.

"Just barely," I said.

"More soldiers incoming!" Mir yelled.

I spun around, watching in horror as several ships landed near us, no doubt containing at least a dozen soldiers each.

But to our surprise, the soldiers piling out weren't Irken, but many different species.

"The Resisty!" Mir said happily. "They came just in time!"

"You got that right!" Kiu said.

"Skoodge?" Zim said, running over to the commander.

"Hi, Zim!" Skoodge said. "Long time no see."

"Guys, I hate to break up the little reunion, but we have more Voots incoming!" I yelled.

"Those are bombers!" Jek cried. "Duck and cover!"

We ducked into the nearest alley, narrowly escaping the inferno the bombs brought.

Tak peeked her head out of our refuge. She gasped.

"What?" Zim asked.

"I hope you're all ready to fight, because we have at least a hundred soldiers headed our way!" Tak pulled her head in, looking slightly more pale than she had before.

"Well, a fight's what we wanted, isn't it?" Kiu asked. "I fight's what we're getting!"

"He's right!" Dib yelled.

"Well then, I guess the only thing left to do is… CHARGE!" Dink cried, leading us back out into the street.

As I ran I pulled my laser gun from my holster, setting it to kill. Around me, the others were doing the same. The SIRs were readying their built in weapons. Even GIR was looking scary.

I smirked and narrowed my eyes.

Time to kick some serious ass.

As our groups ran at each other, time seemed to slow. My senses took in every little detail about this moment. The smell of charred flesh and explosions; the sight of wrecked Voots and mangled bodies; the sound of battle ready, blood thirsty soldiers screaming; the smooth surface of my laser gun and the taste of ash in the air.

All five senses working together to paint a gruesome picture.

Our two different groups began to meld into one giant, writhing mass of fury and time sped back up to normal, if not faster than it was before.

I threw myself at the nearest Irken soldier, getting so close that we had barely enough room to maneuver.

But I, being the smaller one, had the advantage.

He aimed a blow with his sword, but I easily dodged. I now had an opening.

Before he could react, I shot him dead, right through the chest.

And just like that, our own little battle was over. It had taken only a few moments.

I felt a twinge in my gut, regret maybe? Well, it was too late now. I had more soldiers to kill.

~!#$%^&*()_+

3rd Person

Soldiers were falling on both sides. At first, it seemed as if the rebels were winning the battle. But it quickly became apparent that they were simply getting lucky.

The few humans that hadn't evacuated the city watched this spectacle in wonder. Who were the good guys? Who were the bad guys? And what on Earth were they fighting so violently over?

The fight wasn't going to last for much longer. The rebels were too few in number and the Irkens just kept sending more troops in.

Flying high above the battle, way out of harm's way, was _The Massive._

"Those arrogant fools will soon be eliminated," Tallest Red said, sitting back in his seat.

"I can't believe that one girl spoke to us so harshly. I sincerely hope I get to see her body," Purple said, eating a donut.

"You and me both," Red replied.

"My Tallest, a call has just come through," one of the pilots said.

"Ugh, turn it on," Red said, rolling his eyes.

"Greetings, my Tallest," said the Irken that appeared on screen. "Invader Kern reporting in."

"Ah, Kern. Have you any new information?" Red asked eagerly.

"I do indeed. I have located another planet, not terribly far from your position now, actually. The dominant species that lives here is actually quite intelligent, but have yet to master space travel. It shouldn't be too hard to take over once you have finished up on Earth."

"Thank you very much, Kern," Purple said, finishing off his donut. "We will contact you when we are on our way. Until then, continue to gather information, ok?"

"Yes sirs!" Kern said, saluting. With that, he cut the transmission.

"Now, let's get back to watching the blood bath," Red said eagerly.


	17. We Are THE RESISTY!

Kota's POV

The battle seemed to last an eternity, when in reality, it was less than an hour.

I killed one Irken after the other, and with every death I felt a little piece of myself die as well. I was becoming a cold-blooded killer.

_No. You're not. You're fighting for a cause you believe in! A worthy cause!_

The thought pushed me forward. I gained some strength back and I didn't feel as bad as I had before.

_The other Irkens are the killers. They have no good reason to slaughter innocent beings._

I slew another Irken. Suddenly, the ground in front of me was empty. I stopped to catch my breath. I looked around.

Bodies were everywhere. No one I knew, thankfully, but a lot of them were definitely on our team.

I swallowed. So much unnecessary death…

Why couldn't the Tallest just listen to reason? Was that too much to ask?

Zim ran over, interrupting my train of thought.

"Have you seen Huji? He's the only one I can't find!"

_Oh no…_

"I haven't…" I said, instantly looking around.

"Duck!" Zim yelled, pushing my head down.

I obeyed, and allowed myself to fall to the ground.

An Irken overshot us and landed clumsily just a few feet from us.

Zim was upon her instantly, firing his weapon with deadly accuracy.

She crumpled as she fell to the ground.

"Thanks," I breathed.

Zim didn't answer; he was looking in horror at something in the distance. I followed his gaze. Lying on the ground not twenty feet away was Huji. He wasn't moving.

"No!" I cried, rushing over.

I knelt down next to him. Zim continued to stand, looking around and making sure nobody tried to sneak up on us.

"Huji?" I asked, gently shaking him.

No response.

"Huji?" I said, a little louder.

Still no response.

I felt tears begin to run down my face. "Good bye, Huji," I whispered.

"He's dead?" Zim asked, pale.

"Yes," I said, fighting back tears. "And it's our job to finish this battle and prevent anyone else from dying. Come on, let's get back to the fight."

3rd Person

The remaining rebels were fighting as hard as they could, determined to survive the fight they had created.

Tak, Skoodge and Mir had grouped together and were standing back to back to back, taking out dozens of Irkens.

Gaz was on her own, but she was doing fine. Only one Irken had bothered her so far, and she was being sat on at the moment. Gaz just continued to play _Vampire Piggy Hunter_, completely ignoring the Irken struggling to free herself.

Dib, on the other hand, was being swarmed with Irkens. But he too was having an easier time because he had grown in the past two years. His increased height allowed him to simply pick up Irkens and chuck them elsewhere. He would also tase them if they got to be really annoying.

The SIRs were raining doom upon the heads of their enemies. By working together, they would take out huge groups of Irkens all at once. Their chaotic, insane laugher was almost creepy now.

Jek and Kiu were working back to back, covering each other. They had both watching Huji die, and they weren't about to lose each other now.

Dink was dodging in and out of groups of Irkens, confusing them and getting them to accidentally kill each other. If necessary, he would defend himself with his laser, but he rarely did so. It was much easier to let his enemies do the work for him.

~!#$%^&*()_+

"Incoming fighters, my Tallest!" one of the pilots cried.

"What? They would dare attack _The Massive_?" Red shouted.

"They appear to be Vortian ships!" another cried.

"But, that's not possible!" Purple yelled, outraged. "We have all the Vortians in captivity!"

"They're contacting us…" the first pilot stated reluctantly.

"Put them through," Red said with a scowl.

"Hello again, Irkens," Lard Nar said with a sneer.

"Again? Have we met before?" Purple asked.

"Oh you don't remember me? Well, maybe you'll remember this name… We are… The Resisty!"

The Tallest gasped.

"But… How?" Red sputtered.

"Our numbers have greatly increased in the past two years," Lard Nar grinned. "We are much more powerful than we were when we first met. You laughed at us before, but soon, you will tremble at the very mention of our name! Fire!" Lard Nar commanded.

!~$%%^&_)(*&

Kota's POV

Explosions sounded from the sky. I risked a quick glace up. The Resisty had fought their way over to _The Massive_ and were now leading an attack against the Tallest's ship.

"Way to go guys," I murmured, saluting.

I went back to fighting. For once, it actually looked like we might win the battle.

What a miracle that would be.

"Kota!" I looked over to see Zim and Skoodge rushing towards me, killing more Irkens along the way.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Skoodge received a call from Lard Nar, the Resisty's leader. They need some backup up there. I was wondering if you would be willing to help!" Zim said.

I looked around for my ship. I found it, seemingly unharmed a couple hundred feet away.

"Sure, I'll go and help."

I dodged and swerved between friends and enemies, slowly but surely making my way to my ship.

Once there, I started it up as quickly as possible, fighting back Irkens bent on stopping me from taking off.

"Ready for takeoff," the computer alerted me.

I took off as fast as I could, scattering the Irkens surrounding my Voot Cruiser. I headed toward the battle raging between the Resisty's fleet and the Irken armada.

_If we can shoot down The Massive, we could not only win this battle, but we could win this war as well!_

The thought chilled me to my squidlyspooch. Wouldn't that be something, to end the Tallest's reign of terror once and for all?

_Almost there…_

I crashed into the center of the battle, immediately targeting a lone Voot. I fired, and looked away, knowing full well that I had shot the cruiser down.

But when I looked back, the cruiser was still there. The ship didn't move at all, taunting me.

I could just catch a glimpse of the pilot. He seemed to have a metal plate over one of his ruby eyes and a sneer was plastered on his face.

"So that's how you wanna play, huh?" I asked out loud. "So be it."

I gave chase to the Cruiser, firing every chance I had. I became so focused on the pilot in front of me, I forgot to watch everywhere else.

And that, my friends, was my biggest mistake.

!#$%^&*()_

3rd Person

The battle for the sky raged on. The Tallest had been worried at first, but they quickly realized that they were much more powerful. Their pilots were superior, their technology superior.

"Shoot them down, shoot them all down," Red said calmly. "Let this battle show any other rebellious souls out there what happens when you decide to mess with the Irken empire."

_The Massive_ and the rest of the armada were unforgiving. They left no survivors. One by one, the Resisty's ships were shot down.

"Retreat!" Lard Nar commanded hopelessly. "We can't help anyone if we're dead."

"But what about our troops on the ground?" a pilot asked.

"There's nothing we can do to help them now," Lard Nar said sadly.

~!#$%^&*()_+

Kota's POV

Why didn't I pay better attention?

As I chased the one cruiser that had managed to elude me, another snuck up from behind. But perhaps that had been their plan all along.

I didn't even know what had happened until it was too late.

Smoke engulfed the cabin, alarms blared from all sides.

"Eject!" I screeched at the computer. "Eject!"

But the computer didn't respond.

Time to take drastic measures.

I prepared to open the cockpit. I'd eject myself out as soon as I was close enough to the ground.

Ready…

_NOW!_

I threw myself out of my ship, trying my best to get as far away from the dying ship as possible.

But it wasn't far enough.

I gasped as I felt the ship crash against my side before crashing into the ground. Instantly, blood poured from the wound.

I hit the ground, hard, and blacked out.


	18. Finale

I managed to open my eyes, but everything was going black.

This was the end.

We had tried so hard… I had actually thought we were going to win. Thought we had shown the Tallest that it was wrong to obliterate everything they came across.

But we had lost.

Or at least I had.

Had it come to this? A failed attempt at fighting for what we believed was right? Had it come to fighting and killing each other?

It was wrong, this battle should have never happened. My impulsiveness had led our group to destruction.

My thoughts were scrambled, I couldn't think straight. Nothing was making sense anymore. My entire body throbbed in a dull pain.

I hoped that even after I was gone, the others would keep fighting, even if they knew it was hopeless. I hoped they wouldn't give in. If they gave in, a fate possibly worse than death would await them. The Irkens would be de-activated, Dib and Gaz might be slaves.

Yes. There were fates much worse than dying in battle.

I took a shuddering breath, one of my last.

Nobody had noticed me yet, and I hoped they wouldn't until this battle was over. If they saw me now, they would become distracted, and they would be even more easily defeated.

My vision blurred.

Tears.

But… why was I crying? My life had been well spent… I didn't have any regrets…

Or maybe I did.

But if I did, I would never know what they were. It was hard enough to think straight as it was.

I managed to look down at the gaping wound in my side. Watched the blood leave my broken body and slowly drain my life away.

My eyes began to close for the last time.

Finally, someone noticed me.

Darkness enveloped me.

_Goodbye, universe._

Jek's POV

She was dead. Gone from the universe forever.

Why hadn't I noticed? I could have saved her…

But it was too late now.

Nothing I could do would bring her back.

So I would finish this battle, for Kota.

I charged at an Irken solider who had cornered Dink.

"For Kota!" I cried.

Zim's POV

"For Kota!"

Why not me, THE ALMIGHTY ZIM?

Jek was charging an Irken soldier while screaming battle cries.

But why? He had been so serious before… Not making a sound while he fought.

I finished off the Irken I was fighting with my laser.

I looked around. Something had changed, someone was missing.

But who?

Then I saw her.

Kota was lying on the ground, unmoving. A gash was cut into her side, crimson blood pooled all around her.

_NO!_

I ran over.

_She can't be dead! She was one of my greatest friends! None of this would have been possible without her!_

I reached her broken body. She looked much frailer now, as if you could hurt her just by moving her.

I kneeled down and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Kota?" I asked quietly.

No answer.

"Kota?"

Silence.

_No…_

I felt for a pulse.

Nothing.

She was gone.

There was no way I'd be able to fight now.

The battle had to stop, we couldn't keep killing each other, it was wrong.

But how to stop a battle that should have never happened?

3rd Person

Zim ran over to Dib, the one closest to him.

"Stop fighting," Zim said hoarsely.

"What? They'll kill us!"

"No they won't!" Zim yelled. "They'll most likely capture us! But I won't watch anyone else die. I don't want this to end up like Impending Doom One. Please, Dib, just stop fighting."

He took a deep breath.

"Ok, Zim. I'll help you tell the others to stop fighting as well."

Zim nodded and ran off.

Dib's POV

We were captured.

The Irkens had been amazed when we just stopped and sat down.

Zim was right, they hadn't killed us, but they weren't just going to let us go either.

I looked around at the rest of our pitiful fighting force. They all had defeated looks on their faces.

I wasn't ready for defeat yet, I still had questions.

For example…

_What is going to happen to us now?_

A/N: Bwahaha! Yes, this is the end of the story, and yes I did kill myself off. :P Oh, don't worry, there will be a sequel, maybe even a prequel. I really like the idea I came up with! So keep a lookout! But I must ask one favor of you, please, comment and tell me which you would like to see first… A sequel or a prequel! Also, add in anything that you'd like to see in the future… Minimoose for example… I completely forgot about the little guy! D: But I guess I can just go with the classic…

"Hey, since when did Minimoose get here?"

"Oh, him? He's been with us the whole time…"

Peace out!

~Kota

WHY WAS THERE BACON IN THE SOAP?

Side Note…

This was one of the first things I wrote for this story. I believe I wrote the intro and the first two chapters first, and then I got into one of my "death and destruction moods." So I wrote the finale. So yes, I was planning on killing myself off from almost the beginning. I mean, I couldn't always have myself hogging the spot light, could I? But all the others will be back! And when I eventually write a prequel, I guess I'll have to hog the spotlight once more.


End file.
